The COVID-19 pandemic is a health and human crisis that threatens the food security and nutrition of millions of people around the globe. Before the pandemic, a lot of people are already suffering from hunger and malnutrition and if no immediate action is done, these problems will continue to persist until a global food emergency will be experienced. Hence, the national government, local government units, private organizations and other sectors are intensifying their efforts to sustain the economy, agriculture, markets and other essential business running to ensure that the citizens can still be able to access and buy food despite the movement restrictions and income losses.
One of the Local Government Units who scaled-up their nutrition response to mitigate hunger and malnutrition during this pandemic is the municipality of Piñan, Zamboanga del Norte.
The Municipal Nutrition Committee (MNC) of Piñan, ZDN headed by MNC Chairperson Honorable Cecilia J. Carreon and Municipal Nutrition Action Officer (MNAO) Dr. Ricardo S. Awit, provided fruits like apples and oranges per day in addition to the food packs distributed that contain adult milk, carrots, potato, munggo, oats, eggs, biscuits, and iodized salt to all identified pregnant women and 6-59 months old underweight and severely underweight children of the 22 barangays of the municipality for the period of 31 days in April 2020. Through the generous donations of various local investors and private organizations, the LGU was able to distribute additional rice and canned goods to all their constituents. Process of distribution was done weekly by the Barangay Nutrition Scholar (BNSs) and Barangay Health Workers (BHWs) while following the COVID-19 health protocols.
In addition, the municipality also distributed food packs to school children of Piñan Central School. These children were encouraged to conduct prayer sessions and lead the rosary every day since the COVID-19 started.
In order to sustain food security in the municipality, employees of Piñan initiated the establishment of hanging vegetable gardens by recycling the empty bottles of Zonrox and soft drinks to make container gardens so that citizens of the LGU will be encouraged to produce their own foods with the use of available materials and recyclable containers. This is done to avoid panic buying and food hoarding during this pandemic.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought the world to a standstill and despite the challenges it brings, the health and nutrition of the people should not be compromised since it is one of the major foundations to protect the body against the virus. Just like the municipality of Piñan, if the government, private sectors and the citizens will join efforts during this pandemic, both malnutrition and COVID-19 can be defeated and will not worsen.
NO I Angelica O. Pajulas
References:
1. How Piñan Zamboanga del Norte fight against COVID-19 narrative report
